Data compression is often used in file storage systems to reduce the amount of storage space needed to store certain files. Data compression may be particularly beneficial for files that are not accessed frequently. Such “inactive” files may be compressed and the compressed files archived, for example, in a secondary storage. Generally speaking, in order to read or write a portion of a compressed file, the entire compressed file must be read from storage and decompressed to recover the original file data. Such decompression can be time-consuming and can increase the processing load of the storage system.